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Towards Other Earths [Lecture]

Today’s guest blogger is Dr. Fritz Benedict. He is a Senior Research Scientist at UT-Austin’s McDonald Observatory in west Texas. He is also involved with NASA and is currently attending the Towards Other Earths conference in Portugal. Dr. Benedict will be giving a lecture at HMNS on October 27, at 6:30 p.m.

Hello from Portugal, where it is raining; water from the sky, and exciting new developments in the area of extrasolar planets.

All of this week, experts from around the world are sharing ideas and results about planets tens to hundreds of light years away. It is absolutely amazing how much we can determine about exoplanets: mass, size, composition of atmosphere, temperature and density.

But, these are all gas giants (like Jupiter) or even larger. The holy grail in this game is a planet that is very similar to Earth; a place with a surface gravity, atmosphere, and oceans like we enjoy. So, this conference (called Towards Other Earths) has a reason to exist. What will be required to find and characterize an earth-like planet tens of light years distant?

About Steven

Steven never dreamed his first job out of college would be in public relations, and on top of that working for one of the top museums in the country. After all, he majored in History at Vassar College. Within three months of graduation, he landed a spot in the PR department and has not looked back since. He is fast becoming a communications fanatic, spending a tremendous amount of his time promoting the museum and all it has to offer.